Key Cards Rotating Out in 2021 (Year of the Gryphon) – Part 2 (Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin)

Year of the Phoenix is coming to an end, and Year of the Gryphon is starting soon. With the recent news about the introduction of a Core Set, it will also be the biggest rotation in the history of Hearthstone, given that a big part of Basic/Classic set is also out.

Standard rotation is always a massive event. With three expansions (this time 3 expansions + adventure) dropping out of Standard, its impact on the meta cannot be overstated. The sets that we’re losing (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum and Descent of Dragons + Galakrond’s Awakening) had a lot of staples that we’ve seen in nearly every single meta since their release. Those cards disappearing means that multiple archetypes will cease to exist, which will, in turn, create space for new decks to rise up. It’s also important that Core Set will contain “only” 235 cards, compared to 380 from the Basic + Classic, so we’re “losing” another 140+ cards there. Even though we’re gaining 135 cards from Forged in the Barrens expansion, Standard players will still have access to around 450 less cards than they do right now. Of course, not all of the rotating cards have seen play, but a substantial amount of them did.

In this article (or to be more precise a series of three articles), I will showcase some of the important cards that are rotating out. What qualifies as “important”, you might ask? Cards that have seen a decent amount of meta play, were key to certain archetypes’ existence or are just good standalone cards that would probably see play after rotation. Cards that have only seen play in meme/off-meta decks or just didn’t see much play at all are excluded. I also didn’t add cards that have previously seen play, but become unplayable after some syneriges already rotated out or they got nerfed. Yes, the definition is not clear, but I’ve tried my best to include cards that will be most missed from the standpoint of post-rotation Standard format. If I forgot about a certain card, let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Part 1 – Neutral Cards

Part 3 – Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior Cards

Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter isn’t losing a ton of cards, because it didn’t have that many cards to lose in the first place. Demon Hunter Initiate set is the only one “from” Year of the Dragon, and the class had no Classic cards whatsoever. While it’s certainly not many cards in terms of quantity, looking at quality, Illidan will certainly miss some of those.

By far the biggest loss has to be Twin Slice. The card was played in nearly every single viable Demon Hunter build (I think that Lifesteal OTK version is the only exception – and even some versions of it play one copy) – both before and after the change. Dealing 2 damage for 1 mana, or 4 damage for 2 mana, which can be split however you like, in a class that relies heavily on melee attacks – well, yeah, of course it was great.

Another major loss are the AoE’s – Blade Dance and Altruis the Outcast. They were played in different types of decks – Blade Dance was common in slower builds that played big weapons (e.g. Soul) and Altruis was more of an Aggro card, but Demon Hunter’s ability to clear the board will suffer. Then we’ve got Glaivebound Adept, another heavy hitter. It was played in multiple builds – whenever you needed extra burst damage and a solid mid-game threat, Glaivebound Adept was your man (your Illidari?).

Other cards like Satyr Overseer, Consume Magic, Mana Burn or Umberwing have also seen a substantial amount of play. In particular, Umberwing was an auto-include into more aggressive decks (extra damage + board presence in a single card), while Consume Magic has been an amazing Silence, so decks running all sorts of buffs, Taunts etc. will now work better against DH (unless they tech in something else, of course).

Overall, Demon Hunter is losing a few important cards, but generally not as many as other classes simply because it didn’t have that many to lose in the first place. I think that it should do fine.

Druid

Oh Druid, where should we start… Maybe let’s go through the cards by rarity, it will make things easier. So Basics – Moonfire was a vital part of Malygos Druid combos, but then again, Malygos is also out and we’re getting Pounce instead, which honestly might be better in non-Malygos builds. Savage Roar was a Token decks auto-include and one of Druid’s biggest finishers. Luckily, with Arbor Up and Power of the Wild remaining in Standard, the class is not completely out of options. And Swipe… Interestingly enough, the card hasn’t seen much play in Druid recently, but it’s been an all-time staple, combining single target removal or burst with some AoE. Druid was never doing well against wide boards and while Swipe wasn’t much, it has been useful.

Now onto Commons. Wrath and Crystal Power have been quite flexible early game removals that didn’t lose all their value later in the game – one could be cycled and the other one served as healing against any faster deck. Acornbearer and Blessing of the Ancients have been instrumental to many Token builds success – maybe not so much recently now that Druid had so mnay different tools, but previously they were very popular. And Rising Winds is just a well-rounded card – it worked best in Quest Druid (because it’s Choose One), but it also held up in builds like Token or Highlander because of that flexibility. Oasis Surger was nearly exclusively used in Quest build (I mean, 2x 5/5 with Rush for 5 mana ain’t bad) while Emerald Explorer was a part of a rather small, but powerful Dragon Druid package.

Looking at Rares – first and foremost we’re losing a pretty major Token Druid package. Treenforcements, Dreamway Guardians, Aeroponics and The Forest's Aid were all played in Token Druid at one point (mainly the Treant build). Losing those cards, deck’s early & late game power will suffer, so it’s hard to say how viable it will be in the end. Then, one of the biggest losses for Druid, in general, has to be Overflow. The card was played in all kinds of slower builds as the main source of card draw. Drawing 5 cards AND healing every character for 5 (yes, enemies too, but the healing part was more often a good thing) for just 7 mana was crazy. Not as crazy as Ultimate Infestation used to be, but still great. Druid is losing all kinds of card draw and hopefully we’ll see some alternatives printed soon. Breath of Dreams is a ramp + card draw in one. A  pre-nerf Wild Growth if you ran a deck full of Dragons… but realistically, it was hard, so players usually settled on 3-4 Dragons and then Breath of Dreams sometimes worked and it was amazing. Winged Guardian has seen some play in Ramp Druid, Big Druid, Embiggen Druid – however you want to call it. But interestingly enough, the 6/8 Taunt was also kind of relevant for Rogue, since it was one of the options for Pharaoh Cat (also rotating out). Finally – Hidden Oasis was a Quest Druid staple, combining solid board presence (with Taunt nonetheless) with massive healing.

Well, Epics… Here the loss of Anubisath Defender will hurt most. For most of the decks that played it, it was essentially a mid-late game 0 mana 3/5 Taunt, letting Druid players regain tempo after playing a big spell like Overflow or – even better – Survival of the Fittest. The latter allowed Druid to play a 10 mana spell that does nothing immediately AND still have a 7/9 on the board. Then, Crystal Merchant has been vital in Quest Druid builds, filling those early game turns with some board presence and card draws + letting the deck cycle in the late game. Embiggen is an interesting case of a card that’s amazing and bad at the same time. On the one hand, +2/+2 buff to all minions in deck is great. On the other, increasing their cost sucks + it had no immediate effect, didn’t even affect hand. Ultimtely it has seen a decent amount of play before the last rotation, and was tried out in some Aggro builds every now and then.

And Legendaries. By far the biggest loss has to be Ysera, Unleashed. The card was AMAZING, and one of the main reasons why slower Druid decks were so powerful in drawn-out matchups. Dragons are, on average, really big. Summoning random Dragons every now and then created lots of extra board pressure. In some cases you could go for a few turns without really playing any threats from your hand, just taking things slowly, and your opponent still had to use their removals because you summoned 1 or 2 big Dragons. Then, Untapped Potential – Druid’s Quest has seen a substantail amount of play, but mostly before rotation. After rotation, it was still played every now and then, but without nearly as much success. Goru the Mightree and Elise the Enlightened are sort of similar in a way that they have only started seeing play recently. Highlander Druid was tried out multiple times in the past – even in a Combo form – but it got a bit more of mainstream success in Darkmoon Faire. Similarly, Goru has only recently started seeing some play in Treant versions of Token Druid – we could argue whether those builds are better or worse than a faster, Gibberling version, but the fact is that it’s played right now.

All in all, Druid is losing A TON of cards for all different archetypes. Quest is gone, Malygos is gone, Dragon synergies are gone, Highlander is gone, slower builds will struggle without removals or card draw, and Token Druid is losing A LOT of key cards. We’ll have to see where Blizzard decides to take the class in the upcoming expansions.

Hunter

Going through Basic cards first, we already see Hunter losing some heavy hitters. Animal Companion and Kill Command were the class staples, seeing play in tons of different decks. Kill Command in particular will be hard to swallow, as it was usually the class’ best burn tool – 5 damage for 3 mana was often used as a way to close out the game. Tundra Rhino is less important loss, but it has seen a lot of play over the years – mostly in different sorts of combo. I remember it being really good a while ago when combined with Dire Frenzy (which is actually making a comeback into Core Set).

And now Commons. Well, there’s a lot. Unleash the Hounds has to be the biggest loss here – it was another Hunter staple, used both as a way to deal some more burst damage (it could deal up to 7 in some cases – but 3-4 while creating some board presence was more common) and as a board control tool. Two Secrets are gone – Pressure Plate and Snipe. They weren’t the most commonly used ones, but have seen some play. Corrosive Breath & Primordial Explorer were a pretty important part of the Dragon package, which was very prominent for quite some time in Hunter. Dwarven Sharpshooter was a great 1-drop – 1 mana 1/3 with an upside is basically what you want. It gave Hunter some board control capabilities – sticking it to the board made removing opponent’s stuff much easier. And finally – Desert Spear was a well-rounded weapon, great at the early-mid game board control.

Rares follow a similar pattern with multiple high impact cards out of the equation. Phase Stalker and Eaglehorn Bow were absolutely crucial in Secret-based Hunter decks. Phase Stalker allowed Hunter to “cheat out” Secrets from their deck while dealing face damage with Hero Power, thus gaining lots of free tempo. And Eaglehorn Bow has been a great source of damage and board control – if you played it in a Secret-oriented deck, you usually gained at least one extra point of durability, often even more. Diving Gryphon is a great combination of removal + card draw. Yes, 4/1 is not technically a removal, but because of Rush and low health you usually just ran it into something right away. Hunter played enough Rush minions for the effect to trigger consistently. And then we’ve got Rotnest Drake, another reason why Dragon Hunter took off. 5-drop with aggressive, but still vanilla stats AND Deadly Shot packed into a single card. It would often swing the game completely in Hunter’s favor.

When it comes to Epics, I’ve got two most important ones. Toxic Reinforcements was a base for multiple Face Hunter builds. While it went in and out of the meta, it has seen a lot of play overall. Summoning three Leper Gnomes meant more damage – in a deck that wanted to Hero Power anyway, getting what was essentially 6 extra damage for just 1 mana was really nice, even if delayed. And then, Stormhammer was yet another Dragon Hunter staple. Since you ran enough Dragons to trigger your synergies, there were games during which it was nearly an infinite weapon. I remember counting 7 swings with it one game – it wasn’t always AS good, but you could easily expect 4-5 swings unless it was destroyed.

Looking at Legendaries, the biggest loss has to be Dragonbane. Another Hero Power synergy card – if you dropped it on curve and it didn’t die, you often had the game sealed in your favor. No matter if it hit a minion and killed it or dealt extra 5 damage to your opponent’s face, the effect was superb. Even waiting until T6 to play it alongside Hero Power made it good enough. I would normally put Dinotamer Brann as the most impactful one, but the card was hit by the nerf quite recently, going up to 8 mana (from 7). Even after the nerf, Highlander Hunter was still a solid build – after all, 8/8 with Charge is always a great finisher and a free 2/4 body can’t be underestimated. Then, Veranus has seen a lot of play in Highlander & Dragon builds. Solid stats and amazing effect that synergized well with Desert Spear or Unleash the Hounds were the reason for its popularity. Well, and Dragon tag for all kinds of synergies. And finally, I’m putting Unseal the Vault as honorable mention. Many players have tried to make it work multiple times, but it always ended up as either too weak or off-meta. I have to admit that it was overall better than I suspected.

Mage

I don’t want to say it, I don’t want to say it… Okay, I have to say it – Mage’s Core Set is getting gutted. Like, really – the class is losing SO MUCH. Pair that with a big rotation and… well, I just hope that Mage will get some really good cards in the upcoming expansion.

But alright, let’s start with the Basics. Frostbolt is probably the biggest loss. It was one of the most iconic Mage spells – cheap removal, burn damage, stall in case you want to stop a single big minion from attacking. Frostbolt was commonly played in many different mage builds. In a similar vein, Arcane Missiles is no longer in Standard. It was one of the best 1-Cost Mage spell, useful as removal vs small minions and some extra face damage. Frost Nova used to be played in most of the slow Mage builds as a stall tool, usually buying at least one more turn against board-based decks. Mirror Image was another solid, cheap, stall spell, and Polymorph – while it haven’t been put into decks in a while – was a nice card to have just in case (plus one that could be Discovered when needed).

Commons… Where do we start… Probably with Sorcerer's Apprentice. Most of the strongest Mage strategies in the history of Hearthstone relied on this card. Discounting all spells by 1 mean that already cheap spells became free and could be combo’d much better. Most recently, it was used in Mana Cyclone strategies, Burn Mage and Mozaki, Master Duelist builds. Ray of Frost is another cheap, strong spell that’s gone – because of Twinspell, you could either deal 2 damage for 2 mana to a single minion (well, often for 0 mana thanks to Apprentice) or freeze two different minions. Then we’ve got the Secret package. While Secrets remain a part of Mage’s Core Set, the class is losing A TON of synergies – Ancient Mysteries and Cloud Prince are the Common ones. Plus we’ve got a really powerful Secret rotating out – Flame Ward has been a very useful removal tool, even in non-Secret decks. Violet Spellwing was a way to get Arcane Missiles, but with an extra 1/1 body, while Azure Explorer was a nice value tool + if it stuck around, +2 Spell Damage was a big deal. Last, but not least, Learn Draconic hasn’t seen much play in actual decks, but it was a really solid card to generate, and that possibility is gone.

Now Rares. Blizzard is one huge loss – a combination of AoE removal with stall tool was another Mage staple. Between Blizzard and Frost Nova gone, the class has no real AoE freezes (Cone of Cold is there, but it’s only up to 3 minions). What makes it even sadder is that Mage just got Glacier Racer, a card that might have seen some actual play after rotation (still might with Cone of Cold, but it would be even better with Nova/Blizzard). Two more cards from Secret package – Arcane Flakmage and Kirin Tor Mage – were honestly crucial to the deck and it’s hard to imagine Secret Mage without them. Magic Trick was played in any deck that benefited from playing cheap spells, while Arcane Breath was common in builds running some Dragons (e.g. Highlander Mage). Elemental Allies is a more recent option, it only really started seeing play in Burn Mage, but it’s really great in that deck – you can trigger it easily, and drawing 3 cards for just 1 mana, even if delayed by a turn, is still amazing. And finally – Conjurer's Calling, a card that was broken at 3 mana, but still has seen some play at 4. Mostly combined with Mana Giant – after you got it down to just a couple of mana points (or even made it free), you could turn it into two random 8-drops.

When it comes to Epics. Mana Cyclone is probably the biggest loss – the card was a massive value generator in multiple decks ever since its release, often giving you a full hand of random spells. Most of Mana Cyclone builds also played Mana Giant – with so much card generation, you could discount it down to 0 very quickly, and as we all know, 0 mana 8/8 ain’t bad. Rolling Fireball was a great, flexible spell that could be used either as a big, single target removal or board clear vs a few smaller minions. Power of Creation was a great tempo generator, especially when cheated out. Given that you had an option to pick the minion yourself, the chances of low-rolling were, well, low – and you often high-rolled into whatever you needed at the time (big minion with Deathrattle, Taunt, sometimes even Charge to just kill the opponent). Talking about cheating things out – Tortollan Pilgrim was a “Big Spell” Mage and Highlander Mage staple, since those decks played multiple high cost spells – you could consistently pick a 6+ mana spell to get out for free. It also led to the creation of an interesting combo deck called “Turtle Mage”, but got nerfed to not work in that deck again. And then, there’s Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron… it was fun while it lasted, but I have to say that I won’t miss this card, especially when generated randomly.

And onto the Legendaries. Maybe let’s start with a Classic one – Archmage Antonidas, which is more like an honorable mention. Yes, the card hasn’t seen mainstream play in a long time, but I felt like it should be featured here. It was used in Combo decks across the years, we had at least 2 or 3 “Exodia” builds around it (4x Sorcerer’s Apprentice + Antonidas + free Fireballs for days). Then, we’re losing two Renos – Reno the Relicologist and The Amazing Reno. Interestingly enough, they were usually both played in Highlander build – one as a mix of tempo and boar clear, and the other as an ultimate board wipe that removes EVERYTHING. Poof. With that, Highlander (or Reno) Mage is officially gone. Chenvaala was usually played in the same Tempo builds that Apprentice, Mana Cyclone etc. Since you played a ton of cheap spells, it was really easy to trigger it once (at which point it was a 2/5 + 5/5 for 3 mana), maybe even twice in the same turn. And sometimes you had those full blow-out turns where you summoned four 5/5’s or something. Malygos, Aspect of Magic was a part of small “Dragon package”, mostly played in Highlander builds. The spells it gave you were really nice and pulled the weights of its frankly pretty weak 2/8 body. And finally – Kalecgos. Another “cheating” tool for Mage, you usually dropped it, discovered a big spell and played it immediately (or, alternatively, played one big spell from your hand). It was a solid tempo push and, if not removed, your next turn could be even better.

Paladin

I… don’t really know what to say. I wanted to put more cards on the list, but that’s really it. Year of the Dragon was REALLY weak for Paladin, the class didn’t have many playable cards. Things have really turned around in Year of the Phoenix, but 2019 was unremarkable. And most of the strongest Basic/Classic cards will stay in the Core Set, so the class isn’t losing much on that front either.

Starting with Basics, I’ve decided to put two Blessings in here. Might gives +3 attack and has seen quite a bit of Aggro play over the years – we didn’t have a viable Aggro Paladin in a long time, though, so that’s why it wasn’t popular lately. And Wisdom actually does see play right now – mainly thanks to the Crabrider, which is a cheap Rush + Windfury combo, meaning that Wisdom usually becomes AT LEAST an Arcane Intellect when played on it – and if it sticks, even more than that.

Shotbot is the only really relevant Common rotating out. It was often played in Pure Paladin decks, and would probably see play in other kinds of Aggro/Midrange builds too, but… those didn’t exist. Lightforged Blessing was played in some slower Paladin builds, usually those that cheated out big minions, as a way to gain some health. Most recently, it was played in Ramp Paladin.

Looking at Rares, we’ve got two important ones are definitely Salhet's Pride and Lightforged Zealot. Former is now a staple in Libram (Broom) Paladin – you run many key 1-Health minions that you want to draw, mainly Pen Flinger and Animated Broomstick, so having a card that draws two with a 3/1 body just for 3 mana is a nice deal. Zealot, on the other hand, is a must-have in Pure Paladin. Well, it’s actually the main reason you go for Pure Build in the first place. Truesilver Champion is a pretty solid card by itself, and Zealot gives you a 4/2 body on top of that. It might not seem like much, but tempo-wise what is virtually a free 4/2 makes a big deal. And well, there’s also Desperate Measures, which has seen a bit of play in builds that only played big minions (e.g. Duel Paladin), so they had to fill the void with spells.

Talking about Duel – Duel! was a card that I put in more as an honorable mention. It never gained mainstream popularity, but some players sure as hell tried to make it work. I’ve seen a new Duel Paladin build every expansion, but they never turned out to be strong enough to be a part of the meta. However, the other two Epics are much more important. First – there’s Lightforged Crusader, which is another Pure Paladin staple. It came with an okay body for the cost (well, a War Golem), but with tons of extra value. Giving you random cards is not always optimal, but when there are five, you were bound to get something good. And then – Tip the Scales, which came back to the meta recently, but it wasn’t its first tango. Back in the day, when Prismatic Lens was still in the meta, players ran a Murloc Paladin combo that relied on it. And more recently, it was again “abused” by cheating it out, this time with High Abbess Alura (which actually lead to the card’s nerf from 4 to 5 mana).

And Legendaries… I mean, Legendary. While we’re talking about Ramp Paladin – the name actually comes from Nozdormu himself. Besides cheap Murlocs for Tip the Scales, your curve was pretty high – you ran multiple high cost cards like Scrapyard Colossus or Carnival Clown, plus ways to get them back again (Y'Shaarj, The Defiler + N'Zoth, God of the Deep). The deck was built in such a way that it benefited from getting to 10 mana more than an average opponent, and thus once “meme” Nozdormu became a viable card. I guess that I could put Sir Finley of the Sands here too, but honestly, Highlander Paladin was by far the LEAST played Highlander deck. Even Druid has seen more play.

And.. that’s it. Really. There were some other Paladin cards that have seen SOME play, but they were either quickly cut or a deck running them quickly disappeared. For example, Quest Reborn Paladin was a thing over a year ago, but it dropped out of the meta very quickly so I didn’t think that it’s worth featuring. The current best Paladin decks heavily rely on cards from Year of the Phoenix (such as Libram package).